Is This Rembrandt Real?

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Is This Rembrandt Real?

1) DigitizeRockmore starts with a photograph taken with a Sinar 54 camera that spits out 20-megapixel images - about four times the resolution of a regular digital camera file.

2) AnalyzeSoftware converts the picture to grayscale and divides it into squares. The pixels in each square are coded with a number between 0 (black) and 255 (white) - everything in between is a shade of gray. It does this so that it can see the distinctions caused by brushstroke style, not by color.

3) SearchThe software combs the image, identifying and stripping out the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines of the brushstrokes, searching for patterns that reveal the artist's style. With each pass, the software creates "a blurry version of the original," peeling away minute details and better exposing large-scale features. The computer does this five times, eventually gathering 72 pieces of data that statistically summarize each square.

4) PlotRockmore takes this data, which describes the brushstroke elements like slant and thickness, and reduces the information into a point on a 3-D grid. This point is compared to points generated by other paintings. Works by the same artist should cluster together. Rockmore might then work backward to determine what differentiates master from pupil.